Under Pressure, Facebook Restricts Gun Promotion on Social Network

Advocacy groups have cited Facebook pages such as Guns For Sale, a community page with 213,000 likes, which often posts multiple photos of firearms for sale.

Facebook announced Wednesday new restrictions on promoting guns on the social network, amid pressure from groups favoring gun control.

In a blog post, Facebook said it will remove offers to sell guns without background checks or across state lines illegally. Facebook will notify users offering to sell guns of relevant laws and limit the visibility of posts and pages about gun sales to users 18 and older.

The company also announced that searches for guns for sale on Instagram will prompt messaging reminding users of gun laws.

Facebook said it would rely on users to report posts and pages offering to sell guns. It said the changes will be implemented over the next few weeks.

The changes come after a six-week campaign by the advocacy groups Mayors Against Illegal Guns and Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, which posted a video in February depicting illegal gun sales on Facebook. The groups planned to deliver more than 130,000 petitions seeking a crackdown on posts about illegal gun sales to Facebook headquarters before the company agreed to the new policies. Facebook also cited ongoing talks seeking new gun policies with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Americans for Responsible Solutions, and Sandy Hook Promise.

Illegal gun activity on Facebook “is in many cases blatant,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action. She said the new rules reflect “how much power moms have as customers on Facebook.”

In a statement to The Journal, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose office was involved with the effort, said “I applaud Facebook for listening to the call of Moms Demand Action and doing the right thing.”

The moms and mayors groups have cited Facebook pages such as Guns For Sale, a “community” page with 213,000 “likes,” which often posts multiple photos of firearms for sale. Administrators of the Guns For Sale page did not respond to requests for comment.

Danny Herrera submitted a photo of a rifle for sale that was posted by the Guns For Sale page Monday. Herrera, who lives near Fontana in Southern California, said he plans to sell the gun legally, through a gun shop, and would require the buyer to act through a gun shop. Herrera said he previously sold a gun legally on Facebook. Other gun sellers also said legal sales take place on Guns for Sale. The advocacy groups said they were not concerned by legal sales.